She ran her fingers over the cloth. Finally. Smooth again.

Ever since Atr moved that soul across the tapestry it had left a ridge. A ridge that took years to finally settle out. Then the soul remembered, and everything became chaos again. Smoothing out the ripples had taken a lot of work, but it was worth it.

She smiled softly and began to work the loom again. Her eyes closed as she reveled in the simple pleasure of the task. She knew without looking that her younger sister was dutifully moving the shuttle and handling the threads. With each strike of the beater, the universe moved forward. Countless worlds with countless lives. Each a colored thread following the progress of a soul through the great pattern.

The moment of simple contentment ended when she felt a weight on her shoulder. She looked up to see her younger sister pointing at the cloth, a look of horror on her face.

There in the middle of the group of strings that was smooth moments ago, a thread sticking out.

She hissed, as her finger lifted the loop of thread sticking out of the fabric. Why! It was fine a moment ago where did all this slack come from? She tugged at the offending thread, watching its color change.

Her eyes grew wide. As she watched changes spread to a nearby thread. NO! No, no, no… Only one day and multiple threads had fundamentally changed. It was as if fate had shifted around this one thread. It was changing the pattern.

“Atr!” She yelled.

Her elder sister appeared by her side, “What issss ..,” she question was cut off in a hiss.

Clo looked up angrily at her sister. “The troublemaker. Again! The threads are moving.”

Atr returned the glare, “There is too much for that one thread to be the cause.” Atr began to look back at the fabric. Nothing out of place. Clo and Lac’s work was perfect.

“This change is not something a single soul could have done,” she repeated with less confidence. There is something strange going on.

Art looked at Clo and Lac. “Your work is flawless, which just leaves…”

They all slowly turned to the doorway. Outside Kao was looking in with a grin. The youngest goddess was rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, holding her hands behind her back. Kao’s dress swayed back and forth as she rocked. Kao gave the impression of a child trying to look innocent while somehow looking all the more guilty.

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“You broke your word,” Atr growled. “You touched one of our threads. And that…”

“I did not …” Kao’s smile grew wider. “I did not touch any of the threads.”

“HE WAS MARKED!” Atr snapped. “You interfered!”

“You have always flaunted the rules, but I did not think you would go so far as to break one of mother’s,” Clo added with barely contained irritation.

“I would never.” Kao made an exaggerated expression of being offended, then laughed. “You forget, mortals have the final say in whom they belong to. That is also mother’s rule. Though if you do not believe me, we can wake her up and have her sort all this out. I wonder what she will say about your ‘rules,’ or kicking me out of the loom room, or…”

“Enough,” Atr growled. “Do you think you can explain how a single thread was able to change that much? This is not just choosing a new path. What did you do?”

“Why would I tell you?” Kao replied, venom dripping from her words, and meeting Atr’s glare.

Clo interrupted Atr and Koa’s staring contest. “Then we will give you something…. Do not glare at me Atr; we are getting nowhere. What do you want? And it better be reasonable.”

Kao pursed her lips and tapped her finger to her lips. “What do I want? What do I want?”

Clo rolled her eyes, “Stop being petulant. You already had an idea when you walked over.”

Kao’s grin returned. “I want you to let me talk to the people.”

“No,” Atr replied flatly.

Kao looked at Clo. “Not happening.”

“Then those whom I have given…” Kao began but was cut off.

“One,“ Clo cut in.

“Then I want…”

Kao’s intent was clear to her sisters, so Clo cut her off again. “Yes, yes, you can talk to him, appear in visions, take physical form. I do not care … But only near him and only he can interact with you.”

Atr immediately objected, “Absolutely not. That would…”

“Let it go, Atr!” Clo snapped, causing her older sister to flinch. “She wants a toy, let her have it. It will keep her busy, and we can get back to work.” Clo the turned back to the loom.

“Agreed,” Lac added in a soft voice before turning back to her work.

“I do not like it,” Atr said, glaring at her sisters, then turning her attention back to Kao, “but I will accept it. What did you do?”

“I took him in. You had treated him so badly he asked to serve me.” Kao laughed. “He even took a knee and made an oath like a knight.”

“That thread is not a knight,” Clo cut in, poking at the thread as if it were something offensive.

“Well,” Kao looked down and turned away acting bashful, “he was the first person to ask to be my follower. And he wanted to protect people. So…” She trailed off.

“So what?!” Atr’s temper was at the breaking point.

“So among the people he wanted to protect, he included me,” Kao said staring at the ground where the toe of her shoe traced a slow circle on the floor.

Atr cackled maliciously, “That broken little boy, protecting a goddess, that is amazing. He was already on death’s door, and you cannot make him stronger. So how would tha…”

“So I made him my champion. AND I gave him a bit of my power.”

Atr choked on the words caught in her throat.

The silence was broken by the sound of the shuttle clacking on the floor after falling from Lac’s limp fingers.